Hackers send false messages using SatNav

If you believed that you can trust 100% the satellite navigation, the hackers come to tell that you are wrong. Two security experts have discovered a way to inject false messages — some amusing and others potentially frightening — into car satellite navigation systems.

Andrea Barisani, chief security engineer for Inverse Path Ltd. and Daniele Bianco, a hardware hacker at Inverse Path, used off the shelf equipment to transmit messages to their car satellite navigation system warning of conditions ranging from foggy weather to terrorist attacks. They presented their findings on Friday at CanSecWest a security conference taking place this week in Vancouver.

Barisani and Bianco sent the messages over RDS (Radio Data System), a standard created in Europe but also used in North America that allows FM radio stations to transmit data over a sliver of spectrum that runs along every FM channel. RDS can contain information such as the name of the radio station. It can also transmit traffic information.